Clegg Calls For UK Drugs Review

Nick Clegg has called for a review into the current drugs law in the UK.

The deputy Prime Minister has backed calls for a royal commission to consider decriminalising illegal drugs.

This is despite a rejection by David Cameron of the Home Affairs Select Committee's report which pointed out the approach to drugs in Portugal, where possession is not always prosecuted.

Mr Clegg said the government needed to looks at alternative approaches.

The deputy Prime Minister was talking to the BBC.

"We can't be complacent, we owe it to the many many children in this country who still get snarled up by drugs, whose education chances are blighted by drugs, whose health is damaged by drugs, we owe it to them to constantly restlessly look for better ways of dealing with the scourge of drugs," he said.

"After all, this is a war, the war on drugs, in which over 2,000 people are losing their lives in Britain every year, in which one in five 11-15 year olds in this country now say they're trying drugs, where young people now are telling us that it's easier to get hold of drugs than it is to get hold of alcohol or tobacco.

"I think those facts alone suggest that, yes of course we should do the good work that we are doing as a coalition government, but we should also be open-minded enough to look at whatever alternative approaches help us help those children more effectively in the future."

Mr Clegg added: "My own view is that we simply cannot be content with the way things are. The worse thing to do is to close your mind off from doing even better."

The decriminalisation of drugs would mean that possession for personal use would not lead to prosecution, but that trading and selling would.

It would also mean the government could attempt to control manufacture, quality, purity and supply.

(IT)